Considerations for Online CFGs

What are some of the things that you need to think about as you make a decision about whether or not to conduct an online CFG and what do you need to think about when selecting a tool?

There is a lot that can go into some of the choices you make. They fall into four major categories:

1. Technical Considerations
2. People
3. Protocol / Work to Be Done
4. Group Support

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Technical Considerations

Access

• Connection Speed: How are your participants connecting to the internet? Broadband? Other?
• Location: Where are your participants located? Home? School? Other? Will they have firewalls they have to contend with?

Equipment

• Audio: Can all participants hear and/or send audio? Does it matter if some can and some can't?
• Video: Can all participants view and/or send video? Does it matter if some can and some can't?
• Telecommunications: Do all participants have the telecommunications equipment you are considering? Do they know how to use it

People Considerations

• Technical abilities/savvy: How technologically savvy are your participants? Are these tools/systems familiar to them?
• Fearlessness: How comfortable and willing are your participants with trying new things?
• Adaptability: How easily can your participants adapt to something new or switching to something on the fly when what you are trying doesn't work?
• Timing: Can all of your participants gather online at the same time, or would that be impossible?

Protocol/Work to be done

• Collaboration: Do people need to be able to simultaneously create or edit a document?
• Small groups: Does the protocol require small group work?
• File sharing: Will files need to be shared? How will you do this?

Group Support

• Privacy: How important is privacy? Do you need to make sure everything is locked from view or is mostly-private okay?
• Archiving: Do you want or need to have an archive of your CFG session? How/where will that be stored?